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Senior Software Engineer

Toast · Remote · R & D : Engineering : Shared

Posted Sep 30, 2026 · We last checked this listing on Oct 6, 2026

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Likely interview questions for this role

Written from this job description, not a generic list. Each one notes what the interviewer is really checking.

About your past

Tell me about a project you led from design through deployment. How did you estimate and manage the work?

What they are checking: Whether they can lead end to end, including estimates and trade-offs, not just write code.

Tell me about a time you improved the long-term maintainability of a system. What did you change?

What they are checking: Whether they invest in code health, not just shipping features.

How do you mentor other engineers and raise the bar on your team?

What they are checking: Whether they help others grow through reviews, design discussions and example.

What would you do

A bug caused some employees to receive the wrong tip amount. Walk me through how you'd respond.

What they are checking: Whether they fix forward safely, correct affected payouts and prevent the same bug from returning.

About the work

Tips and earnings decide what restaurant workers take home. How do you design a system where correctness is non-negotiable?

What they are checking: Whether they think about idempotency, auditing and testing for money systems where errors directly hurt people.

Walk me through how you'd design a tip pooling feature that supports different restaurant rules.

What they are checking: Whether they can model flexible rules cleanly without hard-coding special cases.

How do you handle money in code to avoid rounding errors?

What they are checking: Whether they know to use integer cents or decimal types and handle remainders on purpose.

How would you make an earnings service reliable when it depends on several upstream systems?

What they are checking: Whether they understand retries, timeouts, reconciliation and graceful failure in distributed systems.

How do you approach testing for a payroll-related system where edge cases matter?

What they are checking: Whether they use property-based tests, real data scenarios and reconciliation checks, not just happy-path tests.

How do you handle changes to wage or tip rules across different states?

What they are checking: Whether they design for configurable, auditable rules that can change without rewriting core logic.

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The full job description

As published by Toast.

Bready* to make a change? Toast is a rapidly growing company that's revolutionizing how the restaurant industry does business by pairing technology with an extraordinary commitment to customer success. We help restaurants streamline operations, increase revenue, and deliver amazing guest experiences through our platform that combines restaurant point of sale, team management, guest-facing technology, and award-winning customer support. Join us as we empower the restaurant community to delight guests, do what they love, and thrive. We're looking for a Senior Software Engineer to help build and scale the platforms that calculate and deliver pay to restaurant employees, from tip pooling and redistribution to wage calculation, earnings retrieval, and payroll delivery. You'll lead highly visible, mission-critical infrastructure that determines what employees take home, and that powers products restaurant teams rely on every day. About this roll* (Responsibilities) • Drive the evolution of our tips and earnings platforms, leading complex projects that improve functionality and reliability for our customers. • Take end-to-end ownership of systems, contributing to a strong engineering culture focused on correctness, reliability, and long-term maintainability. • Lead projects from design and estimation through implementation, testing, and deployment to help shape how we build reliable systems at scale. • Ship code that directly impacts product revenue and the accuracy of what restaurant employees are paid. • Partner with product and design to influence what we build and how we build it. • Contribute to and elevate team standards through thoughtful code reviews and technical discussions. • Mentor and provide technical guidance to other team members. • Leverage AI tools like Claude to accelerate development and pioneer better ways to work. Do you have the right ingredients*? (Requirements) • 5+ years of back-end experience with one or more object-oriented programming languages (such as Java, Kotlin, or similar). • Proficient with modern web standards and technologies (e.g. React, TypeScript, REST, GraphQL). • Proficient with traditional databases and alternative data stores. • Experience owning and operating production systems. • Experience with distributed systems, enterprise messaging systems, and/or microservices. • A strong appreciation for precision and correctness, because when the output drives someone's paycheck, getting the calculation right matters. • A track record of tackling ambiguous, high-impact challenges and delivering scalable solutions. • Excellent cross-team communication skills on complex technical topics. • Passionate about technology and learning new things.   AI at Toast At Toast, one of our company values is that we're hungry to build and learn. We believe learning new AI tools empowers us to build for our customers faster, more independently, and with higher quality. We provide these tools across all disciplines, from Engineering and Product to Sales and Support, and are inspired by how our Toasters are already driving real value with them. The people who thrive here are those who embrace changes that let us build more for our customers; it’s a core part of our culture. Our Spread* of Total Rewards We strive to provide competitive compensation and benefits programs that help to attract, retain, and motivate the best and brightest people in our industry. Our total rewards package goes beyond great earnings potential and provides the means to a healthy lifestyle with the flexibility to meet Toasters’ changing needs. Learn more about our benefits at https://careers.toasttab.com/toast-benefits .   *Bread puns encouraged but not required The base salary range for this role is listed below. The starting salary will be determined based on skills, experience, and geographic location. In addition to base salary, our total rewards components include cash compensation (overtime, bonus/commissions if eligible), equity, and benefits. You can learn more about how we align pay with local labor markets in our Geographic Pay Zone Philosophy . Zone A $159,000 — $254,000 USD Zone B $138,000 — $221,000 USD Zone C $125,000 — $200,000 USD How Toast Uses AI in its Hiring Process Throughout the hiring process, our goal is to get to know you. We use AI tools to support our recruiters and interviewers with tasks like note-taking, summarization, and documentation of interviews to ensure they can be fully focused on your conversation. All hiring decisions are made by people. We ask that you complete interviews and assessments on your own, without real-time AI tools, recording, or transcription bots, unless we tell you otherwise in advance. To learn more: https://careers.toasttab.com/ai-in-hiring Our Approach to Hybrid Working We embrace a hybrid work model that fosters in-person collaboration while valuing individual needs. Our goal is to build a strong culture of connection as we work together to empower the hospitality community, regardless of location. Please visit the Locations page on our career site to learn more about our in-office expectations by region:  https://careers.toasttab.com/locations-toast People Are the Secret Ingredient in Our Recipe for Success At Toast, our employees are our secret ingredient—when they thrive, we thrive. The restaurant industry brings together people with a wide range of backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives, and we value that same breadth at Toast. We strive to build a culture grounded in authenticity, respect, and humility, where every Toaster has a real opportunity to grow, contribute, and do their best work—raising the bar in delivering exceptional experiences for our customers and each other. Apply today! Toast is committed to creating an accessible and inclusive hiring process. As part of this commitment, we strive to provide reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities to enable them to access the hiring process. If you need an accommodation to access the job application or interview process, please contact candidateaccommodations@toasttab.com . ------ For roles in the United States, it is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.

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